Kananaskis

Human and naturally triggered avalanches have occurred in the past 24 hours. Time for conservative terrain choices.

Late on Saturday we received a report of a skier triggered avalanche near Hero's Knob. This slab avalanche was triggered from the top of the terrain feature on a steep northerly aspect. Many details of the avalanche are not available but it was reported as a size 2.0 and nobody was buried. In addition, a few new slab avalanches were noted today on steep Alpine slopes on N and E aspects up to size 2.5. Most of these avalanches failed on the basal facets and involved the entire snowpack.

Between 10 and 15cm of low density snow fell overnight adding to the 5cm from yesterday. Wind slabs are obvious in the Alpine on lee and cross-loaded terrain, and these are sensitive to human triggering (see Avalanche Summary). The November and October crusts, buried approximately 40 and 60cm respectively, are still layers of concern, and have produced some recent avalanche activity. At lower elevations the snowpack is weak and unsupportive (unless you stick to one of the previously pounded in trails) with consistent ski penetration to ground at elevations below 2000m.

Monday will bring a mix of sun and cloud, alpine temperatures between -18 and -12 and light westerly winds. Very light flurries may start in early afternoon, but accumulations will be negligible.